Pages

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Ever have one of those weeks where you try so hard and come tantalizingly close but keep hitting a wall?

I tried for three days trying to convert the Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich into a kabob for the summer grill. We were going to call it a "Top Down Hot Brown" (great name idea from Alexis) but I just couldn't get the kabob to end up as a fitting conversion of the original. Eight different configurations ranged from almost edible, to edible, to almost good. But none were "it". I finally just walked away from it.

On the bright side, tonight's Thai grilled turkey breast came out exceptionally well. It's for a project I'm working on and you'll see in a few weeks, but we were very happy with it.

Tomorrow night, I'm working on a real post, but in the mean time, here is a tip for soaking BBQ skewers for grilling. It's not a huge revelation, but it is something I learned after trying to soak them a few other ways.

Help me feel better. Tell me about the hardest you have worked for a recipe that just ended up not working out to your expectations.

16 comments:

I always soaked them in a metal pan overnight in the fridge, that way the water is cold, still penetration, but does not make the skewers fall apart. It is a tricky thing to do, and they never completely get away from burning somewhat.

I think my worst cooking mishap was when i was first learning to cook. I was making pasta and took the pot off the burner to strain it. Then I mixed it with the alfredo sauce I had made. I plated it out onto two plates, one for me and one for my roommate. Since this was in college, our kitchen was in the basement and so we had to bring the leftovers back upstairs. Well, I put a plastic container on the burner that the pot had just been on. And poured the leftover pasta in. All of a sudden it smelled like burnt plastic...because the container had MELTED! Our meal was ruined and I swear I smelled burnt plastic for days afterwards.

Well, I hope this makes you feel better...I'm having a birthday party for my 86 year old friend...yes, 86...and I decided to make 4 cakes because cake choices are a good thing...TWO of the 4 turned out...one flew off the cake plate as I was carrying it to the fridge...all over the floor and Caesar Beezer the Wonder Dog had himself a great time, and later came down with diarrhea...the other cake was burned to smithereens...want more? I could go on and on - for every success there are at least TWO disasters! Or so it seems...loved the tip about the skewers...I just wanted to say DUH! Can't wait to see the Thai turkey thing - looks GREAT! Happy weekend! It is the weekend, right?!?

Love the skewer tip - I have metal ones that my mom handed down, but occaisionally use the bamboo ones and will remember this. I have to admit that I canNOT make a decent chewy homemade pizza crust. Every once in awhile, I get the courage to try some recipe that guarantees chewy, but turns out cakey and crispy. ::::sigh:::: I have accepted my shortcoming and just buy the pizza dough from a local pizzaria for a couple of bucks. I think my talents just lie elsewhere. ;)

My worst cooking nightmare is toast. Was, IS and Always will be. I can't help myself, I always burn it! PS Speaking of burnt I usually don't soak my skewers and let them burn, but I am usually grilling fish on bamboo and it cooks quick. For meat I use metal, because it helps the interior cook too. GREG

Cooking mishaps....they happen to all of us, especially when we get adventurous and start feeling risky. Mine are usually clumsy errors like dropping a fresh hot pizza right out of the oven or something really silly but yet detrimental at the same time.

...for me it was the recent purchase of a tarte tatin pan and ingredients and effort to find out that tarte tatin is just a upside down apple pie, and not much more...$100 lesson. Look for emile henry tarte tatin pan on eBay soon,. Ha